On the 23rd and 24th of November record breaking hammer prices were reached at the WestLicht Photographica Auction.

3 Leica cameras went for 3,6 million Euros!With a price of 1,680,000 Euro the legendary M3D (opening bid: 150,000 Euros) owned by the LIFE photographer and Picasso intimate David Douglas Duncan is the most expensive camera from a serial production ever.It is the second-highest price ever paid for a camera.

The gold-plated ‘Luxus’ Leica, dated 1929 sold for 1,020,000 Euro (opening bid: 70,000 Euro), was the second most expensive camera of the auction.

The very first serial-production M3 (1953, serial number 700001), formerly owned by Willi Stein, chief engineer of Leitz, was sold at a top price of 900,000 Euro (opening bid: 80,000 Euro)

These three cameras are therefore the most expensive cameras produced in a series, ever sold. The camera sold for 2,160,000 Euro at the WestLicht auction in may was a prototype.

The highest bid at the Photography Auction was recorded for the presumably largest private collection of NASA Photographs, documenting the entire US space program from 1961 to 1974 and also the Apollo-11 lunar mission with Neil Armstrong in 300 photographs and slides – this lot fetched 240,000 Euro.A set of more than 300 photographs from the Soviet space program (Lot 1211) achieved 72,000 Euro, clearly exceeding its opening bid of 25,000 Euro.